Sen. Michael Frerichs (D-Champaign) (left) is sworn in under the watchful eye of his 2-year-old daughter Ella with his colleagues, including Sen. David Koehler (D-Peoria) (right) during the Senate Inauguration ceremony at the State Capitol in Springfield.

Sen. Michael Frerichs (D-Champaign) (left) is sworn in under the watchful eye of his 2-year-old daughter Ella with his colleagues, including Sen. David Koehler (D-Peoria) (right) during the Senate Inauguration ceremony at the State Capitol in Springfield. (Michael Tercha, Chicago Tribune)

Democratic state treasurer candidate Mike Frerichs says he thinks lawmakers should “go back to the drawing board” and start over on changes to public employee pension benefits following a recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling.

Frerichs, a state senator from Champaign, said the court’s 6-1 ruling this month saying state-subsidized health care benefits were guaranteed under the pension protection clause of the Illinois Constitution made it highly likely that justices would find unconstitutional a law approved by lawmakers and signed by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn in December.

“I think in their opinion on health care, they made it fairly clear what their opinion on the state constitution is and how they’re going to rule on it,” Frerichs said Sunday about the public employee pension law on the "Sunday Spin" radio program on WGN 720-AM.

“We’ll wait and see what the Supreme Court rules, but I think it’s good to have a backup in place and to start working (on a backup plan) because I think it’s pretty clear we’re going to have to do that,” Frerichs said. “I think it’s probably time to go back to the drawing board.”

Lawmakers, faced with a worst-in-the-nation $100 billion unfunded liability in state public employee pensions, approved a law that curbs cost-of-living increases for retirees and extends retirement dates for current employees. The court, in its healthcare opinion, ruled that retirement benefits that existed while public employees were working were guaranteed.

Quinn and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan have maintained that the arguments being presented to the court to counter challenges to the pension changes brought by labor unions and retirees are different than in the health care decision. But Moody’s Investor Services, a credit rating agency, said last week that it viewed the court health care decision as a negative as it might apply to the pension changes.

Quinn and Madigan have argued that the costs of paying public worker pensions are unsustainable and risk funding for other essential state services. But critics have questioned whether the argument, raising the “emergency power” of the state, will suffice with justices since lawmakers and the governor have not exhausted their ability to raise revenue to cover the costs. The state could simply raise taxes and make the payments, the argument goes.

Frerichs faces Republican Tom Cross, the former House Republican leader from Oswego, in the Nov. 4 election. The office is an open seat after Republican Treasurer Dan Rutheford's unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for governor.